


Owl of Athena

by Callyopey



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Animagus, HP: EWE, Independent Harry Potter, M/M, Magic Theory, Magical Inheritance, Post-War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 05:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6361492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callyopey/pseuds/Callyopey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry Potter discovers a new found thirst for knowledge after the war, one that opens up the future to him like a boat just out from the mists might find the boundless multifaceted ocean ahead of it. Now if only he could find a companion willing to adventure with him in these uncharted waters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Owl of Athena

Right after the war Harry Potter found himself at a loose end. He did not quite want to be an auror and chase dark wizards anymore, he’d had enough of _that_ for a life time, thank you! But after his more than spotty schooling, he wasn’t quite sure what else he could do with his life. Hermione had decided to study independently for her NEWTs while apprenticing to be the next Transfigurations professor when McGonagall fully took up the Headmistress’ mantle. And Ron had decided he did want to become an auror, despite Harry having abandoned this pursuit, and was preparing for the qualifying exams with that purpose in mind. He could give Hermione a run for the money with the effort and diligence he put in towards his “studies”, but in a completely Ron-like manner he managed to disparage his studies as much as he acknowledged that he couldn’t (though thankfully temporarily) do without them. All of Harry's other friends were also getting on with their post-war lives in their own ways.

Harry was left alone at Grimmauld’s Place with only Kreacher for company, and after having spent such a stressful but intense year almost solely with Hermione and Ron, he didn’t know what to do with himself. True, he had to make a few public appearances, and speeches, which left him uncomfortable for the most part, and he had decided to go and testify at a few trials, particularly the Malfoys’, without whose, albeit ambiguous, contributions during the war, he wouldn’t even be there. But after all that, what was he to do with his life? He was an eighteen year old half-educated boy who didn’t quite fit into the world he’d been pushed to be the saviour of. At least now he could take a vacation with no insane dark lords after his life, and no (it had to be admitted, manipulative) old Headmasters to guide the course of his life. Yes, there was still the heavy mantle of the public regard, but if he kept his head down and slowly withdrew from the public eye, surely they’d find something new to talk about?

So Harry decided to spend more and more time in the Black library, catching up on all the years of education he’d missed, from the Dursleys threatening him if he dared do better than Dudley in School and the bad influence of Ron on his inclination to study (which Hermione’s strict bookworm ways couldn’t counter) to the unavoidably nefarious influence the constant threat of Voldemort had had on anything he could have gotten from the anyway insufficient Hogwarts curriculum. After all, his best escape before Hogwarts had been the small school library and the fairly large nearby council library he’d hid in to escape Dudley and his gang. He’d read about faraway lands and adventures and constantly imagined escaping the drudgery of being the unwanted nephew of the Dursleys. Which is why when Hagrid came to rescue him he had pinched himself many a times to make sure it was real. And then he'd had a fairy tale of his own… or perhaps a horror story, but he came out of it in one piece, so he couldn’t complain too much.

In the next few months Harry drank in all sorts of knowledge that had always been there for the taking but he’d never looked with the kind of open mind towards getting it that he now had. He learned not only about charms and potions and transfigurations (knowledge he needed to refresh), but about wizarding history and politics and law. There was a world out there that was new to Harry, and the future was entirely open.

During one of his exploratory expeditions in the library, Harry came across an obviously little used section on magical theory. The books were old but well-preserved, and a few even had marginal notes from some Black ancestor who’d read them quite thoroughly. They covered all sorts of questions like what the sources of magic could be, what purposes it could serve, what distinctions and categorisations could be drawn between types of magic, what the relations between the different branches of magic are, and if a single foundation could be found for them. Some went into psychological and ethical questions on the use of magic, and yet others explored the singularity of the magic of a particular person that still manages to be universal enough to allow that person to be part of a magical community. Harry was very interested in what these books discussed, but found them a bit difficult to read, a difficulty that was not helped by the obscure references and allusions that were littered throughout. Nevertheless he interspersed his other studies with short forays into these esoteric texts. Slowly, the mists of obscurity started clearing and Harry got more used to following the ideas in these books. What kept him going back was this immense delight and sense of contentment that he got when he untangled an obscure argument which after a great deal of arduous effort stood in front of him with the clarity of a constellation on a clear night.

One thing that Harry noticed was that these books were surprisingly very conversant with muggle mathematics, literature and philosophy. Unfortunately Harry had not studied mathematics since he left muggle school, his knowledge of literature was limited to whatever he’d read while hiding in libraries as a kid, and he had no idea about philosophy. So Harry ventured out to a nearby muggle library and got himself a few books on a whole variety of topics. He tried to talk to Hermione about it a few times, but though she said she could help Harry with some of the mathematics, she was entirely unfamiliar with muggle philosophy, and was so into her NEWTs and transfiguration work that she couldn’t find the patience or the time to familiarise herself with arcane, seemingly useless, or at least impractical, theory. Ron couldn’t understand why Harry would voluntarily read boring old books, so there was no point talking to him anyway. So for the first time since he’d left the muggle world, Harry Potter found himself alone in a venture. This time however, it was an adventure of ideas.


End file.
